Nikkei surges on banks, techs
(CNN) -- Most Asian markets are higher at midday Friday, led by a rebound among Tokyo techs.
That came after a surge on Wall Street Thursday for technology-related stocks.
Japanese consumer electronics giants Sony and Matsushita are both up more than 3 percent at the midday break.
Japan's fourth-largest bank UFJ Holdings is 5.6 percent ahead after the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group said it would offer integration talks.
That pits SMFG against its rival, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, which began rescue merger talks with UFJ earlier this month.
The Nikkei 225 stock average is up 1.58 percent to 11,292.44 at the end of the morning session. On Thursday, the index fell 0.78 percent.
The broader Topix index of all first section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange is 1.26 percent ahead to 1136.17. The Topix lost 0.68 percent Thursday.
Elsewhere in the region, South Korea and Australia are both up about 1 percent, and Taiwan is 1.4 percent ahead. New Zealand is up 0.2 percent to a fresh record high.
But Singapore is just in the red.
Among Japanese tech-related stocks, there are gains of around 2 percent for Hitachi, Kyocera, NEC, Toshiba and Sharp. Matsushita Electric Industrial is up 3.8 percent to 1488 yen after earnings Thursday. (Full story)
Sony, which surprised with a profit in its quarterly earnings Wednesday, is up 3.1 percent to 3940 yen. (Full story)
Nissan is up 1 percent to 1201 yen and Honda is 1.5 percent ahead to 5400 yen after releasing earnings Wednesday.
Among the big banks, SMFG is up 0.15 percent to 671,000 yen after its UFJ announcement. (Full story)
UFJ is 5.6 percent higher to 428,000 yen and Mizuho is up 0.7 percent to 413,000 yen. But MTFG is down 2.9 percent to 1.01 million yen on concerns over the UFJ situation.
In Seoul, the Kospi is up 1.1 percent to 738.73.
Samsung Electronics is up 1.5 percent to 417,000 won and Hyundai Motor is half a percent higher to 43,200 won after releasing earnings Thursday. (Full story)
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 is up 0.96 percent to 3534.8. Rio Tinto is up 2.5 percent after strong earnings. There are solid gains too for resources rival BHP Billiton.
Market heavyweight News Corp is 1.9 percent ahead to A$12.22.
National Australia Bank has ended its recent drift to be up 1 percent to A$26.75.
New Zealand's Top 50 is pushing to a fresh record high of 2780.12, up 0.2 percent. On Thursday morning the central bank lifted interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. (Full story)
In Taiwan, the Taiex is 1.6 percent higher to 5430.73. Singapore's Straits Times index is 0.3 percent lower to 1886.35.
Wall Street closed higher Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 0.12 percent to 10,129.24 and the Nasdaq composite index up 1.23 percent to 1881.06. (Full story)
